Paul Manafort, a former Motherfucker advisor, is being investigated for money laundering, the Wall Street Journal reported late yesterday. Awful, just awful, you may be thinking, but also, what is money laundering?

First, a little backstory. As you know, Manafort is already being investigated for Russian meddling in last year’s election. The New York Times reported yesterday that Manafort was maybe $17 million in debt to pro-Russia interests before he joined the Motherfucker campaign. If that’s not fishy enough, the Journal is now reporting that the New York attorney general is investigating Manafort’s real estate transactions for potential money laundering.

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Laundering is, in simple terms I learned from watching too much television—and by observing Tony Soprano’s many cash-intensive businesses—is the process through which dirty money gets “cleaned.” Money obtained through illegal means goes through a process in which its sketchy roots become (theoretically) untraceable. Here’s how Investopedia explains it:

Money laundering is the process of creating the appearance that large amounts of money obtained from serious crimes, such as drug trafficking or terrorist activity, originated from a legitimate source.

Here’s a hypothetical. Let’s say you have $5 million you obtained through criminal activity, like a large scale illegal drug transaction. You can’t just go depositing that in your Ally account! You’ll have to report that money to the IRS and “serious crime” doesn’t exactly come with a 1099. You have to clean that money and, according to the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, this involves three basic steps:

“Placement:” The process of moving the funds from direct association with the crime;

“Layering:” Disguising the trail to foil pursuit; and

“Integration,” making the money available to the criminal, once again, with its occupational and geographic origins hidden from view.”

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A few examples of how a criminal might actually go through this process include:

Real estate laundering: Someone buys property with money obtained illegally, then sells the property to make it look like their profits are legitimate.

Bulk cash smuggling: Smuggling cash into another country to deposit in offshore banks. These banks keep their clients secret.

Structuring: The cash is broken up into smaller sums to avoid having to report it.

Cash-intensive business: When launderers use businesses that deal with large amounts of cash to route their money so it looks legitimate.